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I. To know Christ (Phil. 3:10), to particularly know that:
А. He is both God and man.
B. He possesses both divinity and humanity.
C. In His humanity He accomplished His judicial redemption through His death.
D. In His divinity He is carrying out His organic salvation in His resurrection.
II. To experience and enjoy Christ (to gain Christ — v. 8) in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages:
А. In the first stage, the stage of His incarnation, from His human birth to His death:
1. To bring the infinite God into the finite man.
2. To unite and mingle the Triune God with the tripartite man.
3. To express in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues:
а. Christ expressed the bountiful God in His human living.
b. Mainly expressing God in His rich attributes, that is, in the unsearchable riches of what God is.
c. Through Christ’s aromatic virtues by which He attracted and captivated people:
1) Not by living His human life in the flesh.
2) But by living His divine life in resurrection.
4. To accomplish His all-inclusive judicial redemption:
а. Terminating all things of the old creation.
b. Redeeming all the things created by God and fallen in sin — Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20.
c. Creating (conceiving) the new man with His divine element — Eph. 2:15.
d. Releasing His divine life from the shell of His humanity — John 12:24.
e. Laying a foundation for His organic salvation and setting up the procedure to attain His ministry in the stage of His inclusion.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for putting us in Your recovery to be the slaves of Your children. As co-workers and elders, we all are slaves in Your house. Lord, only You are the Lord, the sovereign Master; we worship You, serve You, preach You, and dispense You to people. For Your sake we are willing to be Your household slaves to serve You and take care of Your children. O Lord, do speak a clear word to us again in these six meetings; speak something that You have not spoken before and that we have not heard before. It seems that we heard many things before but did not take them in. O Lord, we pray that You would give us a glorious beginning; glorify Yourself, glorify the Father, and glorify the Spirit. O Lord, we are Your slaves, and we can only bow down and worship before You, looking to You to grant us a good beginning.
O Lord, we also cannot forget Your enemy. While You are giving grace to us, he is disturbing us. Lord, we truly hate the evil one; we accuse him before You. We declare before You that You have already destroyed him through Your death in the flesh on the cross. We pray that You would destroy Your enemy, Satan, the evil one, among us in Your recovery. Lord, release Your children, release Your rich grace, and release Yourself that we may receive Your rich and abounding supply. Amen.
In this conference we want to see how to be a co-worker and an elder and how to fulfill the obligations of the co-workers and elders. The central burden of these messages can be expressed in the following statements:
(1) The full ministry of Christ is carried out in three stages for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy.
(2) In the first stage of incarnation to bring God into man, to express God in humanity, and to accomplish His judicial redemption.
(3) In the second stage of inclusion to be begotten as God’s firstborn Son, to become the life-giving Spirit, and to regenerate the believers for His Body.
(4) In the third stage of intensification to intensify His organic salvation, to produce the overcomers, and to consummate the New Jerusalem.
This is a special conference originally initiated by the brothers from Taiwan. Since I have not returned to Taiwan for many years, they requested repeatedly that I speak in Chinese in this conference. In the past few years I did not comply since there should be no differences of nationalities in the Lord’s recovery. Although we still have the language problem passed on to us from Babel, we keep the Lord’s word by not having national differences. In the Lord’s Body there is no room for any nation or race, but He is all. In the new man there is only our Lord, who is all the members and in all the members as their content. Since the Lord is in us, we should not have any national differences. Nevertheless, because we are still in our flesh, language remains a big problem. Hence, although we are releasing the messages in Chinese, may there be no differences of nationalities among us.
I want to speak a frank word to all of you. According to my many years of observation, the biggest problem with the co-workers and the elders is that many of them overly regard their status as a co-worker or an elder. Actually, as co-workers and elders, we have no status. According to God’s love and grace, we are all His children and are of the same species as He. In this sense we cannot say that we have no status. Our status is that we are God’s species and God’s children. According to His economy, out of His created and redeemed human race on the earth, God wants to gain the church, which is the Body of Christ, and, eventually, to have the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of His eternal economy. In the process there is a great deal of work and service, so there is the need to have co-workers and elders.
In the Gospels we can see clearly that Peter, James, and John were the first ones to follow the Lord. They were by the Lord’s side following Him for three and a half years. At the end the Lord brought them with Him to Jerusalem. He was going there to die for the accomplishment of God’s economy, yet His followers were arguing on the way about which of them was the greatest (Mark 9:34; Luke 22:24). That was truly something ugly and shameful. They had followed the Lord for three and a half years; they had been beside Him and had received numerous revelations from Him. Then on their way to Jerusalem, the Lord told them repeatedly that He was going up to Jerusalem to die and that on the third day He would be resurrected (Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19). Although they heard the Lord saying that He was going to die, they did not hear Him saying that on the third day He would be resurrected. Resurrection was a foreign word incomprehensible to them.
They heard the word that the Lord was going to die, and they were also about to enter Jerusalem. Yet they were by the Lord’s side arguing about who was the greatest among them. James and John were the Lord’s cousins in the flesh, for their mother was the sister of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus. Hence, they asked their mother to pay a visit to the Lord Jesus, and she went and asked the Lord, “Say that these two sons of mine will sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your kingdom.” When the other ten disciples heard this, they were indignant concerning the two brothers (vv. 20-24). James and John’s bringing in their family relationship with the Lord was truly an ugly matter.
Then the Lord Jesus called the disciples to Him and said, “Whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave” (vv. 26b-27). Slave here does not refer to a hired servant but to a purchased slave. According to Roman law, slaves had no human rights.
As co-workers and elders, we are such slaves. Paul says, “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). This means that the believers were not to regard Paul, Peter, and others too highly simply because they were apostles and evangelists. Actually, they were the believers’ slaves. Today we also should not regard ourselves as co-workers and elders; rather, we should consider ourselves as slaves of all people to serve all people.
My greatest burden is this: I hope that the Lord will give you mercy through my fellowship in love so that you all will be convinced and realize that to be a co-worker or an elder is to be a slave. Concerning this matter, the Lord Jesus set up a good example for us. He was the Lord and the Teacher, yet He emptied Himself and girded His loins to wash His disciples’ feet, serving them as a slave (John 13:3-5). The Lord also commanded us to do as He did (vv. 12-17). We brothers who are co-workers and elders have been wrong, and we all have to repent. I say this with a painful heart because we always assume the position of being above others and do not allow others to say that we are wrong. If anyone says that we are wrong, we carry a grudge in our heart. This is not the proper attitude of a slave.
For this reason, first, we want to fellowship concerning how to be a co-worker and an elder. We must know that to be the children of God does not require learning. After our regeneration, spontaneously we became God’s children, and for this we thank and praise the Lord. However, no one is a co-worker as soon as he is saved, and no one is an elder as soon as he is regenerated. To be a co-worker and an elder requires learning.
To be a co-worker or an elder, first, we must know Christ. In Philippians 3:10 Paul speaks about knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. To know Christ is not a simple matter. I want to fellowship with you concerning how to know Christ mainly in four items. The co-workers and elders must know these items. Not only must you know them, but also you must know them thoroughly and be able to speak them to others. To know Christ is not to know Him in a common way but to know Him in a particular way. The riches of what Christ is, are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8), but among them, there are the four following items that we need to know in particular.
First, we must know particularly that Christ is both God and man. We should not think that we already know this. We need to be reminded again and again that Christ is both God and man. He was God and He became man, so He is both God and man. Thus, He is a God-man.
Second, we need to know that since Christ is a God-man, He possesses both divinity and humanity. Some may say, “We also know this already.” Maybe we know, but we do not know how to speak it. Concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ, we must have a thorough knowledge.
Third, we have to know that in His humanity Christ accomplished His judicial redemption through His death. To know Christ we have to discern clearly that His being in His humanity is one thing and His being in His divinity is another thing. Concerning the redemption of Christ, the general saying is that Christ was a man with blood and flesh, so He could die for us in His flesh. The deeper way, however, is to say that Christ accomplished redemption in His humanity. We should not remain only in the general saying; this is an indication that our knowledge concerning Christ is not deep enough. We must penetrate the deepest part of the divine truth to see the intrinsic significance of Christ in His humanity.
In His humanity Christ accomplished redemption through His death. Christ had to die in order to fulfill God’s judicial requirement (Heb. 9:22). Therefore, Christ’s redemption is a judicial redemption, and it was accomplished in His humanity through His death according to God’s judicial requirement, that is, according to the requirement of God’s righteous law.
Fourth, we also need to know that in His divinity Christ is carrying out His organic salvation in His resurrection. We need to see further that Christ’s redemption is different from His salvation. Romans 5:10a says that we “were reconciled to God through the death of His Son”; this refers to His redemption. Romans 5:10b says, “Much more we will be saved in His life”; this refers to His salvation. The organic salvation is being carried out in resurrection by Christ in His divinity. This is new light and the new language given to us by God. In His divinity and in His resurrection, He is carrying out His organic salvation in the believers. The judicial redemption has been accomplished, but the organic salvation is being carried out.
We need to have a clear knowledge concerning these four items. Then whether we are co-workers or elders, when we go to shepherd and teach people, we can speak these things to them in a very clear way. The co-workers and elders need to know Christ particularly in these four main items. You must not despise these four items. You may think that you already know these things, but when you go to speak to others, you may not know how to do it or how to call their attention to the main points. This requires practice. The churches in Taiwan are presently practicing four things: praying, studying, reciting, and speaking. This is the right way. Every co-worker and elder must deal with these four items concerning Christ by pray-reading over them, studying them deeply, reciting them from memory, and speaking them thoroughly to present clearly the main points to others.
To be a co-worker or an elder, we also need to experience and enjoy Christ (to gain Christ — Phil. 3:8) in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages. How can we be a co-worker and an elder? First, we need to know Christ; second, we need to experience and enjoy Christ, that is, to gain Christ, in His full ministry. First, we have the knowledge, and then we have the experience and enjoyment. To experience and enjoy Christ is to gain Christ. In Philippians 3:8 Paul says, “...Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.” To “have” is not sufficient; we need to “gain.” To gain Christ requires paying a price. To gain Christ is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of all His unsearchable riches by paying a price. This is not so simple. Hence, Paul goes on to say, “Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue...I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal” (vv. 12-14a). It is not easy to win a game, and it is also not easy to win the victory in a war. These require us to pursue by forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before. Likewise, we need to gain Christ by experiencing and enjoying Him in His full ministry.
The full ministry of Christ is in three divine and mystical stages. The first stage, the stage of His incarnation, began with His human birth and ended with His death, including the entire course of His human life. Hence, His human birth, His passing through human living, and His death formed the stage of His incarnation.
In His full ministry in the first stage, the stage of His incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man. Some may think that this point is very simple. However, perhaps the most you can say is that Christ in His incarnation brought “God into man”; you cannot say that He brought “the infinite God into the finite man.” This is our new language today. God is infinite, and we human beings are finite. In His full ministry in the stage of His incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man. One is infinite, and the other is finite — how could the two become one? Nevertheless, it was carried out by Christ in His ministry. This is truly wonderful.
In general, most Christians today know only about the so-called Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ as our Savior. However, they have not seen anything concerning the mystical aspect of the full ministry of Christ in the stage of His incarnation. I am very concerned and afraid that perhaps many co-workers and elders in the Lord’s recovery have not entered into these deep and profound significances. Because of this, people find nothing interesting in the things that you speak, and they consider them something trite, something that even non-Christians have already heard. However, if you use the new language to speak the things seen in the new culture, telling people that, in His full ministry in the stage of His incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man, people will be stirred up and will be interested in listening to you because this is something not found in the old culture but in the new culture in the divine and mystical realm.
In His full ministry in the first stage of His incarnation, Christ also united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man. The Triune God is mysterious, and the tripartite man is difficult to understand. If we simply say that Christ united and mingled God with man, this is easy. However, according to the new language of the new culture in the divine and mystical realm, we need to say that Christ united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man. Concerning the Triune God, the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the entering in. Concerning the tripartite man, the spirit is the innermost part, the soul is in the middle, and the body is on the outside. This is not easy to explain clearly. Nevertheless, we need to know these things. If we do not have the knowledge, we cannot have the experience or the enjoyment. If we do not have the experience and enjoyment of Christ, we simply cannot gain Christ. Then when we go to speak to others, we will have nothing to say and will be poor in utterance and void of words. Even if we compel ourselves to speak, what we speak will be shallow, simple, and trite.
Some co-workers and elders often would say to me, “I don’t dare to speak about these high truths because the believers whom I am serving cannot understand them according to their present spiritual condition.” My reply is, “It is not that they cannot understand, but it is that you cannot speak clearly.” It is only after we have known, experienced, and gained Christ that we can speak to others, according to the new language in the Lord’s recovery, concerning this Christ whom we have gained. We must learn to use the new language to speak the new culture in the divine and mystical realm. Then people will listen to us with great pleasure and will definitely understand the things we speak. It is only by this way that we are qualified to be co-workers and elders. Otherwise, we are outdated in the Lord’s move in the present age.
The ministry of Christ was not only to unite but even more to mingle the Triune God with the tripartite man. We must be able to tell people clearly what it means to be united and what it means to be mingled. When two pieces of wood are connected together, they are united; when two things are ground into powder and blended together, they are mingled. It is easy to speak concerning the union of God with man, but it is not easy to speak concerning the mingling of God with man. When we preach these truths, we need to explain them in detail.
In His full ministry in the first stage of His incarnation, Christ also expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues. No one can deny that the human virtues of Christ were aromatic; even when non-Christians read the four Gospels, they sense that the Jesus recorded in these books was a sweet and fragrant One, whose virtues were aromatic. This is because He expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes.
Our attributes are the characteristics of what we are. For example, losing one’s temper easily, loving to speak first, speaking carelessly and irresponsibly, and acting lightly are human attributes. On the other hand, behaving cautiously, speaking rationally, doing things purposefully, and not acting irresponsibly or carelessly are also human attributes. Our God has His attributes, and His attributes are rich because He is great and bountiful. He is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. These rich attributes were expressed by the Lord Jesus in His humanity to become the aromatic virtues in His humanity.
The record in the four Gospels shows that when some people brought their little children to Jesus that He might lay His hands on them and pray, they were rebuked by the disciples. But Jesus said, “Allow the little children and do not prevent them from coming to Me, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens” (Matt. 19:13-15). The Lord’s way was different from the disciples’ way. The disciples did not act in accordance with God’s attributes. God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the lowborn, and the despised of the world (1 Cor. 1:27-28); throughout the generations according to His love, forbearance, and forgiving grace, He has called, one by one, those who are weak and have nothing, who are like the little children. In this way Christ expressed God’s attributes in His humanity.
God is bountiful; hence, He is rich in His attributes, His characteristics. Only some of the rich attributes of the bountiful God were lived out by the Lord on the earth in His humanity and seen by men as the virtues expressed in His humanity, yet these virtues were so aromatic and sweet. In His human living Christ expressed the bountiful God mainly in His rich attributes, that is, in the unsearchable riches of what God is.
Furthermore, Christ in His humanity expressed God through His aromatic virtues by which He attracted and captivated people. The record in Matthew 4 shows that when the Lord Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Peter, John, and James, who were either fishing or mending nets with their fathers. Then He called them, saying, “Come after Me.” Immediately, they followed Him, giving up their net mending, abandoning their boats, and forsaking their father (vv. 18-22). To this day I still do not understand why it is that when He simply said, “Come after Me,” the disciples forsook everything to follow Him. I truly believe that at that time the Lord Jesus must have displayed an aromatic power in His countenance and His voice that could really attract and captivate people.
To be attracted and captivated is to be charmed. People often asked us, “Who has captivated you? Wake up!” Once we are charmed by the Lord, we are charmed forever, so it is difficult for us to be awakened. This may be illustrated by a male and a female falling in love at first sight; the male is charmed by the female, and the female is attracted and captivated by the male. Likewise, the Lord must have had an indescribable sweetness and aroma emanating from Him in His humanity. If we had been with the Lord at that time, we also would have been “foolishly” charmed by Him.
Peter was charmed by the Lord to such an extent that although he was rebuked by the Lord frequently, he still determined to follow Him. The Lord’s frequent rebuking could not make him go away. Today I dare not speak strong words to the co-workers and elders. If my rebuke is strong, I am afraid that they will not be able to take it and will quit. However, Peter was thick-skinned. He had been rebuked by the Lord many times, but he still followed Him. On the night of His betrayal, the Lord said to the disciples, “You will all be stumbled because of Me this night.” Then Peter answered and said to Him, “If all will be stumbled because of You, I will never be stumbled” (26:31-33). And the Lord said to him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to have you all to sift you as wheat. But I have made petition concerning you that your faith would not fail.” Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death.” But the Lord said, “I tell you, Peter, a rooster will not crow today until you deny three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:31-34). Not only did Peter disbelieve this word, but he even said, “Even if I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (Matt. 26:35). Later, while Peter was sitting in the courtyard of the high priest, a little servant girl came to question him. Because of her questioning, Peter denied the Lord. At that time the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter, remembering the Lord’s word to him, went outside and wept bitterly (Luke 22:54-62).
After Peter denied the Lord, the Lord could have forgotten about him. However, the Lord did not forget him. On the morning of the Lord’s resurrection, an angel said to several women, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter” (Mark 16:7). Also, the Lord personally told Mary the Magdalene, “Go to My brothers” (John 20:17). The Lord called His disciples “brothers” and particularly mentioned Peter’s name. In this way He captivated Peter.
The Lord Jesus must have possessed some aromatic virtues in His humanity that could attract and captivate people. Otherwise, there could not have been so many people who would follow Him. Among them, there were even a number of noble women who cared for the Lord and who simply followed Him continually for three and a half years (Luke 8:1-3). Sometimes when the Lord spoke certain words that were in another realm, the divine and mystical realm, His disciples could not understand or apprehend them because they had not yet entered into that realm. It was not until after the Lord’s resurrection, when they had been regenerated, that they understood what the Lord had told them before (John 16:13 cf. 2:22).
Christ expressed His aromatic virtues by which He attracted and captivated people, not by living His human life in the flesh but by living His divine life in resurrection. He was in the flesh, but He did not live by His human life in His flesh; rather, He lived by His divine life in His resurrection. Today, as God-men, by which life do we live? No doubt, we are all in the flesh. Nevertheless, we can get out of the realm of the flesh and enter into resurrection to live by the divine life in resurrection, that is, in the divine and mystical realm.
Today the kind of living we have depends upon the kind of life by which we live in our physical body. We must not live by the human life but by the divine life. Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This means that we should not live the life of the old “I” but the life of the new “I.” Dear brothers, we cannot listen to these detailed points and simply let them go. May the Lord cover me. It is after I have studied these things for several decades that I can be led by the Lord to put them into writing. You need to actually experience these things.
In His full ministry in the first stage of His incarnation, Christ accomplished four great things. First, He brought the infinite God into the finite man; second, He united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man; third, He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues; and fourth, eventually, He accomplished His all-inclusive judicial redemption. The first two things were concerning His birth, the third thing was concerning His human living, and the fourth thing was concerning His death. After He passed through His human living, He went to die on the cross for the accomplishment of His all-inclusive judicial redemption.
The all-inclusive judicial redemption of Christ is of five aspects. First, He terminated all things of the old creation. Second, He redeemed all the things created by God and fallen in sin (Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20). Everything belonging to the old creation was terminated by Christ through His death. After this termination He redeemed back all the things created by God and fallen in sin. Third, He created (conceived) the new man with His divine element. Ephesians 2:15 says that on the cross He created the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers in Himself into one new man. That creation was a conception. Any conception requires an element; without the element there cannot be a conception. Christ created (conceived) the new man in Himself, indicating that He was the very element for the conceiving of the new man. He conceived in Himself as the element the two peoples into one new man. While the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross, He was creating the new man.
Fourth, when Christ accomplished His all-inclusive judicial redemption, He released His divine life from the shell of His humanity. John 12:24 says that the Lord Jesus was a grain of wheat. Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, its outer shell cannot be broken, and its life within cannot be released. Christ had the divine life, but it was concealed in the shell of His humanity. Hence, He needed to suffer death on the cross so that the shell of His humanity might be broken to release His divine life from His human shell.
Fifth, in accomplishing His all-inclusive judicial death, Christ also laid a foundation for His organic salvation and set up the procedure to attain His ministry in the stage of His inclusion. Christ’s judicial redemption is the foundation of His organic salvation. Christ in His full ministry in the second stage of His inclusion requires a procedure, and His judicial redemption is such a procedure to accomplish His ministry in the stage of His inclusion.
Concerning all the crucial points mentioned above, we need to learn them in a thorough and penetrating way and spend time to study them with much endeavoring. I have spoken on some of these crucial points before, and you have also heard them. Nevertheless, you need to learn to enter into them, to speak them, and to let all of them become your experience.
